Today we are off for a birthday adventure with some of our closest friends (you can follow along on Instagram to see what all we're up to!). But before we take off I wanted to share some images from last week's J&M Lighting Intensive in Rochester!
First of all, I have to say that our group in Rochester was of of my favorites of all time! I have never seen a group of more kind, welcoming, and just excited to be there people. These guys were on fire, asking all of the right questions and just really rocking the light. I am SO excited for what this year holds for them!
Before we get to the pictures, I did just want to say one thing. It's become a pretty common misconception that the Lighting Intensive is only for people who want to get into more studio/editorial work. And I could totally see where that comes from, since the pictures of our models are almost always in front of Justin's hand-painted backdrop. But the fact is, nothing could be further from the truth! We do shoot our models in a studio set up, mostly because the gray background really helps show off what the light is doing as we teach (and Justin worked really hard on it, so he loves to break it out!). But the whole day is really all about how to light and shoot on the fly at a wedding day or portrait session.
It's about studying and learning from the greats in studio/editorial portraiture, and learning how to use the light like that in the snap decisions we have to make at a wedding/portrait shoot when things are happening a mile a minute. And I truly believe that when you learn to use light like that, it's one of those game changers that sets people apart in a saturated market and makes it really hard for anyone else to catch up!
In addition to studying the different ways to use light and how to make that go to work for you, we also just spend a lot of time getting people comfortable (ahem, not afraid anymore!) of their flashes! You'll see in that first image below that we had a big studio set up with an octo & full length scrim. But several of the pictures in the post, we got with just one on-camera, bounced flash. Who knew on camera flash could be this pretty, right?? If you & your flash aren't friends like that yet, we'd love to see you at one of our upcoming Lighting Intensive in Chapel Hill, NC or Minneapolis!
We also want to give a HUGE thank you to Tim Toal for allowing us to use his studio for the workshop, as well as getting us our gorgeous models Mary & Kat . Tim was the first photographer to give Justin a chance right out of college, and he second shot with him for a year and a half before moving to CT to start his own business. I might not be typing this to you today if it weren't for Tim....we owe him so much!
Today I am SO excited to kick off this week right, by sharing with you an NYC anniversary shoot we just did with the amazing Abby & Matt!! Abby is actually a wedding photographer herself down in the DC area, who we got to meet first through this blog (the internet is an amazing thing!), then for a Walk Through a Wedding Workshop earlier this year, and now she is someone we feel very lucky to call a friend! So when she contacted us about doing an anniversary shoot for her & her adorable husband Matt we knew we had to make it happen! After a few back & forths trying to schedule dates in either DC or CT, we finally found a weekend that worked for all four of us in the middle in NYC. We spent time with these guys walking around the City, sipping hot cocoa, randomly running in to Chicago photographer Kenny Kim, and (my favorite!) ordering mac & cheese with a side of ...mac & cheese! at the famous Bubby's.
It was an incredible day. Spent with two absolutely incredible people who I love with my whole heart!
Today we have something extra pretty for you guys!! While we were out in Napa last month to shoot Cassandra & Jess's wedding, we also got the incredible opportunity to go along with them (and UP with them) to do a day after shoot when they went hot air ballooning. It was one of the most ahhh-mazing things we've ever gotten to do in our lives (even though I totally had visions of plummeting to my death the whole time!) and we owe that entirely to the amazing C&J for making that happen and being so incredibly generous in bringing us along. We have been holding back their wedding from the blog because they are up for publication, but we wanted to go ahead and share this sweet shoot with you now. Enjoy!
A while back we got the absolutely incredible opportunity to photograph up and coming country singer Zach Lockwood when he had a break from his tour and was back home in Connecticut. For this shoot, it was on my heart for Justin to be able to just go out and create without any obligations and to get back to just that love of photography and why he got started in the first place. And also without me there, competing for the shot and taking over all the directing (what is it about us wives that we just LOVE to take over the direction?? :) So he went out on his own....and completely ROCKED it. I am beyond proud to share these images with you guys today!!
Editorial: Zach Lockwood shot on location at the Griswold Inn & Monkey Farm Cafe
**A HUGE shout out of thanks goes to Anthony DeCarlo who went to help out on location with Justin. Couldn't have done it without you friend!!
Karen & Isaac Stott are the kind of people who are just good for your soul.
Your tank can be running on the emptiest of empty, and just one afternoon with these two and suddenly you feel whole again. They are two of our dearest friends in the whole world, not to mention a shining example in our lives of what marriage should be. These two are team in every sense of the word, standing shoulder to shoulder as they build this life they dream of. And while they do it, they lift people up. They pour out love to everyone around them. And they work tirelessly to leave this world better than they found it.
In short, our lives got infinitely better when these two came into it. And there aren't enough words in the world to say how thankful we are for that.
While we were out in Portland a while back, we had the honor of photographing Karen & Isaac. They have a new brand on the horizon that they needed pictures for, but even more importantly....they just wanted to document their life and love together right now. So go on...spend a few minutes getting to know Karen & Isaac.
I guarantee you're going to fall in love with them as much as we have.
And speaking of the amazing Karen Stott, I am getting SO excited to attend her Pursuit 31 Conference this October as one of the speakers. It's going to be three days of rest, recharging, and re-visioning at a retreat in Georgia...and did I mention there will be s'mores?! Registration is CLOSING this week on August 31st, so be sure to grab your spot to join us if you haven't already! And when you do, be sure to use the code "marymarantz" to get $250 off your seat! We'll see you there!
Portraits
